There are probably lots of reasons why I should say I came to India: to immerse myself in an exotic culture; to meet fabulous new people; to partake in the seemingly endless parade of festivals; to see parts of the world I had only read about; and perhaps most importantly, to show my kids that there is more economic diversity in the world than the 1% bubble they knew in Canada. To be honest though (and probably deeply disappointing to many of you), I came for the scuba diving. Selfish, for sure, and perhaps even a bit shameless. But it is what it is.

When we decided to move overseas for T’s work she asked what my preferences might be. Given our history it was probably a foregone conclusion that it would be somewhere in Asia, but I simply gave 2 requirements: 1) no snow, and 2) access to scuba diving. And so far Mumbai is pretty much living up to my expectations. The weather is a balmy +33C today, and last weekend I got to go scuba diving in Goa.

Goa is a state on the western coast of India about 600 km south of Mumbai. Originally settled by the Portuguese in the early 1500s, Goa didn’t become part of India until 1961. As such there is a strong European culture to the state, not to mention miles and miles of beautiful beaches.

The boys had a 4 day weekend from school for Diwali so we thought it would be a good opportunity for them to get their PADI Open Water diving certification. We arrived in Goa on Friday evening and celebrations for Diwali were in full swing. Diwali is the Hindu festival of lights, though it is also feted by Sikhs, Buddhists, and Jains, making it is the most important festival of the year in India and celebrating the coming of the New Year. It symbolizes the triumph of light over darkness, hope over despair, knowledge over ignorance, and good over evil. Originally a harvest festival, people celebrate with the lighting of candles, oil lamps, lanterns, strings of light, bonfires, and as with everything in India, seemingly endless reams of fireworks. In Mumbai, fireworks were the most obvious manifestation going throughout the night until 5 in the morning, and then starting back up at 7 am after a brief respite. In Goa, they have a slightly different take on the festival, with each hamlet and town making huge papermache demons which are then judged in a competition, and then at the dawn of Diwali are all set ablaze (or at least, so I am told, as I was not awake at 5 am to witness it first hand).

In the interest of candor, I must admit that the diving in Goa was not spectacular. Visibility was only about 3 meters, sometimes less, but the boys were able to get their diving licences, and we saw lots of different kinds of fish — lion fish, cuttle fish, clown fish — and I even managed to get stung by a Man of War.

Even though the diving conditions were less than ideal, I got to spend over 2 hours under water which no matter the conditions is kind of like heaven to me. It is also something I have been looking forward to since before I had kids. Now I can’t wait to go diving with T and the boys somewhere we can actually see the spectacular underwater vistas — Indonesia, Maldives, Seychelles, Madagascar, Cambodia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Hawaii, the list is endless….

M

PS – The boys got to go parasailing too!